Fashion & Birds

There seem to be birds in many designs created by Peggy Wolf, but also horses, butterflies, flowers and nature's lovliest creatures along with some fantastic fashion inspiration. This is a young artist who hails from Germany. You may have noticed her work on the sidebar of this blog. I was immediately intrigued by these original beauties. She studied fashion design in her native land and says....

"During my years at the University I found out that drawing and illustrating were a bigger challenge for me than designing clothes.

In 2006 I moved to London, as I felt very inpired by the city, the people and all the designs."

If you are curious to see more of Peggy Wolf's work, you can visit her here. She creates handmade illustrations and photo collages using soft delicate colors and prints with sharp details - including nature's beauties - lemons, florals and of course...... birds. Her model’s expressions have a high fashion appeal with a feminine color palette that is mix matched to fine detail. Admire some more....
 

Magic Fairy

Russian Beauty

Why do I love Vintage?

Why do I love Vintage? This is a question I have posed myself time and again and there are a number of reasons which I believe are behind this Vintage fad I have. First of all, I've always been surrounded by vintage from the very old vintage costume jewellery in my great-aunt's house, to the furniture in my mother's house. There was a time when I considered old stuff just that - old. Then I fell in love with thrifting and buying stuff from markets and auctions. Before I knew it I was picking out items which had a yesteryear feel about them, automatically picking that dress which has the 50s fabric, or that shirt which has a handmade embroidered neckline, or that scarf which reminds me so much of the ones my mother used to wear.
Having a mother who was born in the 20s helped. As did her explanation of what she and her sister word during and after the war; about the New Look. And then there were the drawers full of old fabrics to look through and marvel at, and feel and touch and experiment with - first making dolly dresses and then making my own dresses.
Eventually I developed an expert eye which instanteously picks out the extra special item in a jumble sale and that way I became an expert shopper for vintage. It has taken time, patience, observation and a great love of beautiful things.
Finally - there is the special thing about vintage which makes you look at an old garment, an old pair of gloves or an old handbag and wonder.... who could this have belonged to? why did the lady who owned it buy it? did she or was it a gift? when? And time and again I realise that the special things in our life are usually only special for us, for a reason. It seemed such a pity to realise that so many things which were important and special to some people could lose their importance if they are simply discarded. Adopting a vintage item is like adopting somebody else's little dream and letting it live on.... Why do YOU love Vintage then?

Flappers & Flair

When I came across the art of Gintare Bruzas, I was immediately struck by this beautiful painting - Lady in a Grey Coat from her 1920 Fashion Flapper series. In her own words.... "I am a self-representing artist. I was born and raised in Lithuania, I moved to USA in 1995. I currently reside in Southern California with my husband where I work out of my home studio. My artwork consists of mostly portraits and figure studies. Besides art, I have a long term fascination with 18th century and 1920's fashion. "Ladies of Roaring 20's" series is especially near and dear to my heart because 1920s brought about a drastic change in social customs, morals and clothing for women. The morals, customs, and mood of the 20's were drastic departure from those of the two preceding decades. During WWI, women were called upon to fill the jobs that men left behind. There was no time for mincing steps in restricting skirts. Shorter, wider, more practical skirts were designed for the assertive independent women who were now earning wages for their war time work."

This set the mood for some more roaring '20s images for you to feast your eyes on....

Twenties Typist

Gloria Swanson 1924

Felix Pill Postcard 1920

Surprise Giveaway.....

Check out this image. Three gorgeous models, some lovely vintage evening wear.

This Tuesday Giveaway is going to be a surprise to those of you who make the right guesses to these two questions....

1. Who is the designer who made these gorgeous dresses?

2. What decade are we looking at here?

Send in your answers.... you have until May 31 to send in your replies and the lucky winner will be announced during the first week of June. Remember to send me your email address so I can contact you if you're the winner.

And the lucky winner will get a sweet surprise in the form of a vintage fashion accessory.....

Of Tea Maidens and Barbie dolls

The art on blog comes from a miscellany of artists. Today I want to write something about David Galchutt whose delicious Tea Maiden has been gracing my blog for the past weeks. In his own words...
"I was born into an artistic family. I am a graduate of art center college of design in Pasadena, California. I have worked in several fields of illustration, primarily focusing on illustration for children's publications, the toy industry and giftware. My children's book, "There was Magic Inside" was published by Simon and Schuster. I have also worked extensively designing interiors and accessories for Barbie.  I didn't design the CLOTHES for Barbie, but I did design her "lifestyle" type products. I did many of the graphics for her town houses, dream houses, business enterprises, corvettes, boats, etc. I used to design the illustrations you see on the walls of these products. I also did many many "peel and stick" labels that you affix to the products. I tell people, half jokingly, that I used to be Bbarbie's interior designer! I am a great admirer of historic clothing, and love to use costume in my paintings whenever the opportunity arises."

The Tea Maiden is painted in watercolor on Fabriano watercolour paper and measures 4 x 6 inches. You can view more of Galchutt's works on http://www.etsy.com/shop/artmeister

FairyFiligree has the honour of knowing that this blog inspired David Galchutt to hone in on 1920s fashion and create "A Momentary Distraction" - isn't she just gorgeous?

Krizia - inspiration from art

One of the Italian designers who openly admitted being inspired directly from art is Krizia. The brand was born from Mariuccia Mandelli who kicked off her working career as a teacher in the 1950s. Then in 1954 she dropped everything to follow a bee in her bonnet - that of designing clothes. 1954 saw the birth of Krizia.  In 1957 sdhe presented her first collection in Torino and in 1964 shows off her fashion at Palazzo Pitti and receives the fashion critic award.
Krizia's fashion was inspired by the art of varied artists, ranging from Calder's sculpture (1982 collection); Kandinskij's paintings (1983 collection); Anloln Pevsner's constructivism (1988 collection).

Here is a fantastic 1991-1992 autumn/winter Krizia outfit with 'bejewelled' embroidery inspired by the great Gustav Klimt...

Hermes, luxurious Hermes

1930 - Hermes scarves are used in this two piece outfit

You all remember Luciano Pavarotti and his great stage presence. He considered the Hermes scarf his personal good luck charm - without it he wouldn't go on stage.
Hermes has been a status symbol ever since the first shop was opened in 1837 by Thierry Hermes in Paris. Back then it was only about selling gloves, boots, belts, coin purses.
By 1879, his son Emile Charles extended the activity to include saddles, eventually moving on to produce luggage, bags and wallets.
In 1935 Hermes saw the invention invention of the Kelly bag. Totally handmade by skilled artisans, each bag requires 18 hours to complete. It was only in 1937 that the first printed silk scarf was produced. To this day the Hermes scarf is synonymous of style, elegance and quality. Again it is completely handmade down to its hand-rolled hems.

Here is an example of an authentic Hermes scarf. The design is called Fleurs de Fuchsia and was designed by artist Leigh P.Cooke. If I am not mistaken this comes from the 2006 collection. Size is 90 x 90cm.

Art on my Blog

Portrait of a Painter

You will have noticed that FairyFiligree's sidebar has become more artistic of late. I am happy to host a number of extremely talented artists on this blog. All art featured depicts an aspect of vintage fashion as is the nature of this blog - Beautiful Art + Beautiful Vintage Fashion.
If you are an artist, a designer, somebody clever with crafting and enjoy making special things for special people to enjoy, to gift and to live with, then why not drop me a line? I might find a little space on this sidebar to help you promote your beautiful handiwork.
Have a lovely, sunny & creative weekend.

Some Flowers that came my way.....

Some time ago I received this gorgeous bunch of flowers from the lovely Anne  alias blogger Frollein von Sofa of One Shoe a Day. This was a little gift I won from her straw hat design contest in which I participated and which you can check out here. I love her handmade collections of accessories... check out her work - it's pretty amazing.

Bolero

Ivory Lace Bolero made on vintage design

The Bolero was an item of clothing which became very popular during the 1950s. It was not used just during the 1950s and not just to complement 1950s dresses.  The name derives from the very old and traditional Spanish dance Bolero and the jacket was typically worn by Bolero dancers during their performance.

Antique Bolero

 

1950s ensemble for summer wardrobe knitting pattern

The bolero was also a popular garment during Victorian and Edwardian times.
It was a very effective garment to use with short sleeved dresses when going to church and became a penchant in girls' and ladies' Sunday best outfit. The bolero also asserted its importance in the traditional wedding gown outfit so ladies who wanted to look stunningly provocative in their wedding dress, could do so after shaking off that bolero which was put on just to please the priest.

It was also perfect for wearing in spring time or early autumn to cover bare shoulders and arms.

Recently we had a high street re-make of this garment with the very popular and cute little shrug but don't believe for one moment that the shrug is a modern invention.

I picked out some pretty boleros for your consideration, whether you are experiencing spring or autumn, wherever you might be living. It's an excellent option for light layering, easy to carry around and tuck away in your bag. Choose a colour that fits in with just about any outfit and you're all set to go.

Reconstructed Bolero

For the images in this post I would like to thank these Etsy sellers: bonjourteaspoon's , jill2day & maryandangelika. Thank you ladies.